David N. Ebner. Studio Craftsman, Sassafras Wood Book Chair

About the Item

Master craftsman David N. Ebner's sassafras wood book chair with his exclusive graphite Finish. Please see the newly published book "David Ebner: Studio Furniture" by Nancy Schiffer. Through the use of stripped down Classic forms, David Ebner has updated and extended the mode of furniture solidified by Wharton Esherick, George Nakashima, Sam Maloof and the early Wendell Castle. Mr. Ebner's works are in the permanent collections at the Smithsonian Institute, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Art Institute of Chicago, and have been featured in the New York Times, Art & Antiques, House & Garden and Art + Auction. "As a designer," he says, "I like to find the essence, remove the embellishment and get down to the spirit of a line or design.".

Creator:
David N. Ebner (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 25 in (63.5 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 16 in (40.64 cm)
Style:
American Craftsman (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Wood,Hand-Carved
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
21st Century
Date of Manufacture:
21st Century
Production Type:
New & Custom(Re-Edition)
Estimated Production Time:
9-10 weeks
Condition:
Seller Location:
Bellport, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: U09082580461622

Shop All David N. Ebner

David N. Ebner

Master woodworker David N. Ebner is an integral contributor to the American Studio furniture movement. Along with like-minded artisans such as George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Arthur Espenet Carpenter and Wharton Esherick, the New York native advocates for the craft of well-made furniture that is not mass-produced. As Ebner himself has stated, “[I am] creating the antiques of tomorrow.”

Ebner was born in 1945 in Buffalo and attended the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology. There, he studied under celebrated American furniture maker Wendell Castle who taught Ebner “the artistic approach” to woodworking. After graduating, Ebner sought to further his education at the London School of Furniture Making. Then, following a two-year stint in the US Armed Forces, he decided to pursue a career as a woodworker and furniture designer, opening a studio on Long Island, New York, in 1973.

As a devotee of Castle’s teachings of creating furniture as a form of functional art, Ebner eschewed the trend of making furniture out of plastics and other synthetic materials — which gained steam with the likes of venturesome Scandinavian modernist designer Verner Panton during the 1960s and 1970s — embracing instead the American Craftsman style that formed the basis of the American Studio furniture movement.

Working with a range of woods, Ebner has designed sculptural live-edge dining room tables, shapely bamboo stools and side tables characterized by swooping organic curves, and statement-making cabinets in lustrous sapele wood, each elegantly hand-carved. “... Each piece is treated as an art object with concern for my material and honesty to its inherent qualities,” Ebner has said. “For me, one’s creative ability is demonstrated in the diversity of the pieces and what one learns from change.”

Ebner has exhibited extensively throughout his career, including shows at the American Crafts Museum and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton. His works are in permanent collections at the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Art Institute of Chicago.

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